One of the Constantinian Order’s vocations today is the duty to defend freedom of religion and conscience everywhere. This mission explains its constant principle: the defense and furtherance of the Faith and the glorification of the Cross. At the same time, this principle evokes the spirit of the Edict of Milan (312 A.D.), through which Emperor Constantine the Great – legendary founder of the Order – secured complete religious freedom for Christians by lifting the restrictions that had weighed upon Christianity.
In the humanitarian field, this vocation has manifested itself in aid to persecuted religious communities in the East, through the work of the Pontifical Foundation for the Aid to the Church in Need (formerly ACN) – amongst other institutions.
In the Western world, particularly in Europe, even as religious freedom is guaranteed by the laws of civil society, secularism has generated a crisis of vocations, and, in consequence, a shortage of resources and opportunities to develop and sustain those religious vocations.
For this reason, the Constantinian Order collaborates with seminaries of any diocese where the Order is present. One initiative of the Order, followed since the time of the Gran Mastership of the Count of Caserta, is raising funds for food, supplies and scholarships for seminarians in need.
This past May, HRH Prince Pedro of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria, delivered a donation to the John Paul II Military Seminary on behalf of the Constantinian Order. The funds will defray the academic and personal expenses and support them as their vocation matures.
The donation was given in a simple ceremony in the headquarters of the Spanish Archdiocese for the Military Services, in Madrid. On that occasion, the Most Reverend Don Juan del Rio y Martin, Archbishop-General of Military Chaplains (and also a Chaplain Grand Cross of Justice of the Constantinian Order) and the Director of the Seminary, officiated. Also in attendance during this important occasion was His Eminence Gerhard Ludwig Cardinal Müller, Grand Prior of the Constantinian Order.
